OBERKOCHEN/Germany, 15.09.2008.Carl Zeiss is expanding its successful line of SLR lenses: ZE lenses with EF bayonet for all analog and digital EOS camera models. As with all EF lenses, the new ZE lenses from Carl Zeiss transfer all information exclusively via electronic contacts. This means that all exposure modes such as programmed auto exposure, shutter priority, aperture priority and manual setting are supported. The camera’s automatic focus confirmation also remains available to an unlimited extent with these manual focus lenses. With digital SLRs, the lens data and all exposure data can also be accessed via the camera’s EXIF file. Even E-TTL flash metering is supported. The first lenses to be available will be the Planar T* 1.4/50 ZE and the Planar T* 1.4/85 ZE in the last quarter of this year. Further focal lengths will be added to the line within the next few months. Recommended retail price of both lenses:

Yeah, I saw those. Very cool. I bet they are using those 2 lenses as a test market, and if they do well, hopefully they'll bring more of their great glass to EF-mount. Weren't they Sony-only before those?

Usacomp2k3 wrote:Yeah, I saw those. Very cool. I bet they are using those 2 lenses as a test market, and if they do well, hopefully they'll bring more of their great glass to EF-mount. Weren't they Sony-only before those?

No, they've long been available for Nikon and Pentax. Their Sony lenses are a completely different line.

Usacomp2k3 wrote:Yeah, I saw those. Very cool. I bet they are using those 2 lenses as a test market, and if they do well, hopefully they'll bring more of their great glass to EF-mount. Weren't they Sony-only before those?

No, they've long been available for Nikon and Pentax. Their Sony lenses are a completely different line.

Just to elaborate a bit, Zeiss makes AF glass for sony (ZA). They make their manual focus 35mm slr glass available in several mounts: Nikon(ZF), Pentax(ZK), M42 screwmount (ZS), and now Canon (ZE). All except the ZA series share the same optics. The ZA series is a completely different line developed for/with sony. They're manufactured in Japan, at "a lens production facility jointly chosen by Sony and Carl Zeiss." Zeiss designs and some Zeiss quality-control, but not Zeiss manufacture. To a large extent Sony outsources lens design to zeiss and buys the right to use the name, then has their lenses manufactured. The "real" zeiss glass is found in the other mounts.

mattsteg wrote:Just to elaborate a bit, Zeiss makes AF glass for sony (ZA). They make their manual focus 35mm slr glass available in several mounts: Nikon(ZF), Pentax(ZK), M42 screwmount (ZS), and now Canon (ZE). All except the ZA series share the same optics. The ZA series is a completely different line developed for/with sony. They're manufactured in Japan, at "a lens production facility jointly chosen by Sony and Carl Zeiss." Zeiss designs and some Zeiss quality-control, but not Zeiss manufacture. To a large extent Sony outsources lens design to zeiss and buys the right to use the name, then has their lenses manufactured. The "real" zeiss glass is found in the other mounts.

Many of the new ZF, ZK, ZS, and ZE lenses are manufactured in Japan by Cosina to Zeiss specs (source: wikipedia). I wouldn't be as concerned with the actual point of manufacture as I would be with the standards by which the lenses were made. From all indications, this seems like a continuation of Zeiss quality.

As far as manual focus goes, do any of you guys use a manual focus lens with an AF body? Using my [newly acquired hand-me-down] old Contax/Yashica mount Zeiss lenses adapted to my Canon 20D is quite a chore. I've been thinking of getting a split focus screen for the camera body because it feels so much more intuitive with manual focus.

mattsteg wrote:Just to elaborate a bit, Zeiss makes AF glass for sony (ZA). They make their manual focus 35mm slr glass available in several mounts: Nikon(ZF), Pentax(ZK), M42 screwmount (ZS), and now Canon (ZE). All except the ZA series share the same optics. The ZA series is a completely different line developed for/with sony. They're manufactured in Japan, at "a lens production facility jointly chosen by Sony and Carl Zeiss." Zeiss designs and some Zeiss quality-control, but not Zeiss manufacture. To a large extent Sony outsources lens design to zeiss and buys the right to use the name, then has their lenses manufactured. The "real" zeiss glass is found in the other mounts.

Many of the new ZF, ZK, ZS, and ZE lenses are manufactured in Japan by Cosina to Zeiss specs (source: wikipedia). I wouldn't be as concerned with the actual point of manufacture as I would be with the standards by which the lenses were made. From all indications, this seems like a continuation of Zeiss quality.

As far as manual focus goes, do any of you guys use a manual focus lens with an AF body? Using my [newly acquired hand-me-down] old Contax/Yashica mount Zeiss lenses adapted to my Canon 20D is quite a chore. I've been thinking of getting a split focus screen for the camera body because it feels so much more intuitive with manual focus.

Yeah, I don't particularly care where lenses are made, as long as they're good. It's just interesting background on the difference in heritage between "zeiss zeiss" and "sony zeiss".

On another note, I don't particularly care about a-mount glass at all anyway, since the system and it's overpriced glass doesn't really interest me.

The screens on AF cameras aren't particularly well-adapted for MF usage - they're more optimized for brightness. A lot also depends on the lens in question. The main difficulty in manual focusing my (af) 300 with, for example, a 2x tc on it, is that a tiny movement of the focus ring moves the plane of focus a very noticable amount. The viewfinder isn't really my primary limitation in this situation. Manual focusing my 10-20, on the other hand, is essentially impossible using just the matte screen. Viewfinder indicator lights that still work when manual focusing can help a lot in this situation. I don't yet own any MF glass, which obviously would deal with some of the handling issues (like on the 300).

I'm not sure how well split-prism focusing works vs. using focus indicator lights.